Girl who accused Ovilla of rape in deep trouble

May Gines, 20, is in deep trouble.

She now faces perjury charges before the Quezon City regional trial court for allegedly falsely testifying on rape and acts of lasciviousness cases she had leveled against dismissed Anonas police station chief, former Superintendent Francisco Ovilla.

Assistant City Prosecutor Meynardo Bautista said the young woman is liable for two counts of perjury, one for allegedly lying before the House Representatives’ committee on public order and safety and another for allegedly lying before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office.

She had earlier accused Ovilla of forcing himself on her once and groping her on another occasion. She had told prosecutors she only mustered the courage to talk about her ordeal after Ovilla was linked to a drug-related bribery scandal last year.

Gines had been under the officer’s custody at the request of her relatives who wanted her out of a youth gang.

She was eventually called by the House of Representatives to testify in a public hearing. There, she repeated her allegations against Ovilla and said she also knew about the bribery scandal that rocked the Anonas police, implicating 12 of its officers and men.

But shortly after her rape and acts of lasciviousness complaints were filed in the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office, she backtracked. This time, she accused two policemen, SPO3 Reynato Resurrection and PO3 Wilfredo Gonzales, of coercing her to testify falsely against Ovilla. It was the two officers who accused Ovilla of freeing, after having received a P650,000 bribe, two Hong Kong men earlier arrested for drug trafficking.

Ovilla and 11 of his men were subsequently charged in court for graft and bribery in the sala of Branch 95 Judge Diosdado Peralta, who is expected to decide on the consolidated cases before yearend. Gines even testified as a defense witness in the consolidated cases, repeating her allegations that the two whisteblowers had forced her to falsely charge Ovilla.

Despite the young woman’s retraction, the investigating prosecutor went on with the filing of the charges against Ovilla in the local courts, believing her first statement. Under the rules of court, prosecutors are given the leeway to push through with a case even if the plaintiff or prosecution witnesses have made a turnaround on their earlier testimonies.

Courts respect the findings of facts of prosecutors, who are presumed to have been intimately familiar with the proceedings of the preliminary investigation.

The municipal trial court has since dismissed the charge for acts of lasciviousness against the cashiered officer. But the rape charge is still pending before the regional trial court’s Branch 76 Judge Monina Zenarosa.

Bautista overturned the recommendation of investigating prosecutor Luisa Maceren to throw out the perjury charges for having been filed prematurely. Maceren had said since the rape case is still pending, the perjury charges cannot be prosecuted yet.

"The conviction or acquittal of the accused in the rape case is not determinative of the guilt or innocence of the respondents in the perjury case," said Bautista. He recommended a bail of P6,000 for each count of perjury.

He said the defense could not prove allegations that the young woman was under any duress when she made the statements in the House of Representatives and the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office.